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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24048220">Sawdust and Cloves</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightlilly/pseuds/nightlilly'>nightlilly</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Quirk Archives [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Body Horror, Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia Anime Spoilers, Burns, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Dabi is Todoroki Touya, Dismemberment, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Improper Use of Needles, Knives, Necromancy, Needles, Partial dismemberment, Skin, Slaughter!Shigaraki, Sort Of, Stranger!Dabi, Surgery, The Author Regrets Nothing, Unethical Experimentation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:01:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,051</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24048220</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightlilly/pseuds/nightlilly</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dabi knows quite a lot of strange things. Strange things like how it is possible for one to be alive without living, like how it feels to have the flesh burnt off your bones.</p><p>He also knows what it's like to be taken apart and put back together.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dabi &amp; Nikola Orsinov, Dabi &amp; Sako Atsuhiro | Mr. Compress, Dabi &amp; Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Quirk Archives [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1734805</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>85</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sawdust and Cloves</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Spoilers for season 4 of BNHA. Spoilers for the general worldbuilding of The Magnus Archives.</p><p>Warning: this fic contains one nonconsensual surgery, one consensual (but unconventional) surgery, and the author has no idea how any medical stuff works so please bear with me.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Touya knew the feeling of burning well. His quirk made it so that he was constantly burning, feeling his quirk festering beneath his skin. He'd been good at suppressing it, at forcing it down, at making sure it didn't consume him.</p><p>Touya always knew his luck would run out sooner or later. Sooner or later, he would be forced to use his quirk, to use himself up as kindling, to burn.</p><p>It seemed that Fate had decided that it would be sooner, rather than later.</p><p>He wasn't sure if he'd cried, but it didn't matter. His tears would have evaporated in the extreme heat that made his blood physically boil, that charred his skin and singed his bones.</p><p>He knew he was as good as dead, but even as his body screamed at him to give up, to give in to the promise of sleep, of eternal rest, of finally getting away from everything, he didn't want to die. So he dragged himself across the forest floor, fingers stained black like charcoal digging into the dirt for his legs had given up after just a few steps.</p><p>He needed to get to a populated area, one that would see him, injured, and call for help.</p><p>Help found him instead.</p><p><em>"Now what's this?"</em> Touya didn't hear anything beyond a soft murmur, his vision slowly fading away, the last thing he saw being a figure in a long red coat, wearing a black top hat, leaning over him.</p><p>——</p><p>When he came to, it was still dark, and he could see moonlight streaming through the open door.</p><p>Something inside him felt wrong as he surveyed his surroundings, as he realized that this wasn't a hospital, but rather an old, worn down barn.</p><p><em>"Well look at that," </em>a voice said in accented English, sounding breathy as if its owner had just run a marathon. <em>"You're awake. Thought we lost you for a moment."</em></p><p>He sat up, or at least tried to. He was strapped down to what he thought was a table, but he couldn't see.</p><p><em>"Don't try to move, love. We're not quite done with you yet." </em>The figure from before patted his head, and it felt odd. Her fingers felt like plastic in his hair, and everything just felt <em>wrong.</em></p><p>He lifted his head slightly, despite the figure's warnings, and immediately felt the feeling of <em>wrong </em>flood him at full force, drowning him, choking him.</p><p>Where his chest should have been was a large, gaping hole, another pale figure - <em>a mannequin, </em>he realized to his horror - pouring a bag of sawdust into it, into him.</p><p>He began to thrash and the figure in the coat, the ringmaster, for lack of any other description, placed her (its?) hands on his face, gently stroking his hair.</p><p>
  <em>"Shhhh, shhhh. Calm down now. We're putting you back together. There wasn't much left, so we had to replace quite a bit."</em>
</p><p>He thrashed again, pulling against his restraints. He'd never felt the need to cry so much, but nothing came of it, no tears flowed, no voice came out when he tried to scream.</p><p>
  <em>"Oh don't worry about that, love. We'll find your vocal cords eventually. Like I said, there wasn't much left."</em>
</p><p>It (she?) tilted his head, and what he saw sickened him even more. The floor and part of the wall was stained with blood, a mess of muscle and sinew and flesh looking as if a wild animal had torn it to shreds, bits of gore strewn across, and he <em>heaved-</em></p><p>He heaved and sputtered because that was him, that used to be him, the pile of rancid, shredded meat on the floor, and nothing will come out - not tears, nor vomit, nor screams. There's nothing left of him now, there's nothing left, there's nothing left<em> there's nothing left there's nothing nothing nothing nothing <strong>nothing-</strong></em></p><p>He blacked out. </p><p>——</p><p>"I can fix it."</p><p>Several pairs of eyes silently looked towards him.</p><p>Shigaraki let out a snort. "So are you suddenly a doctor now?"</p><p>"No."</p><p>"Then why did you say you could fix it?"</p><p>"Because I know how to fix it." Dabi shrugged. "It's unconventional, but it'll do."</p><p>He'd watched Nikola piece him back together more times then he could count. Small scrapes, bruises, hell even mending his <em>bones. </em>He knew the steps of it all. He might have to call her to see if there was anything he got wrong, but he was sure he could do it. It was an arm. It wasn't an entire body.</p><p>Dabi might not have been human anymore, but he did know their innermost workings. His detachment from humanity had sparked a curiosity within him. Natsuo had always wanted to be a doctor, and he'd never understood his brother's interest with the human body until he had, ironically, lost his own.</p><p>The human body was complex, especially with the way the formed to adapt to accommodate quirks that they would receive around the age of five. It was quite strange. Dabi always wondered why there was that pause before the quirk manifested. It was assumed that the body would have been born with whatever measures it needed to be able to handle the quirk. He loved little mysteries like these. It made humans much more interesting.</p><p>"I'll need supplies, obviously," he went on, ignoring the way they were still staring at him. "It shouldn't take me too long."</p><p>Shigaraki was laughing now, shaking as he tried to contain himself but couldn't as he doubled over, bracing his hands against his knees.</p><p>"What's so funny?" He asked dryly, rubbing a hand on the back of his head. "You're the one that said getting him to a doctor is risky."</p><p>"Yeah, I did." He wheezed as he straightened, his hands twitching. "But I doubt our best bet at fixing Sako's arm is <em>you.</em>"</p><p>Sako cleared his throat. "I trust him. I don't think any one of us can say that we are professionals, but we all have a wide variety of skills."</p><p>"Huh. Thanks."</p><p>"Fine." Shigaraki began to scratch at his neck. "But I'll only let you do it if I'm in the room. I want to see this <em>unconventional </em>method of yours."</p><p>"No. I need to have an empty room." Doing something like this was not meant for the eyes of people who were unaware. "I need to be able to concentrate. If I have you hovering I could fuck it up."</p><p>"If you fuck up, it's on you. Either I'm in the room, or you're not doing anything until we can find a proper doctor. Sako....it's your funeral if you really want to trust him."</p><p>——</p><p>Dabi felt at ease in the empty room. He liked the quiet, the liked the silence. He used to hate it, as it used to mask the crying of himself and his siblings, of his mother who would have been silenced the moment she showed weakness, showed sympathy. He would have been silenced when he showed courage. Shouto was silenced when he showed compassion.</p><p>Now the silence was simply just the world standing still.</p><p>Sako was lying on the table, shirtless, his head turned to one side to look at Dabi as the pyromaniac set out his tools. Shigaraki was milling around the room, watching him with a satisfied smirk on his face, blood-red eyes piercing right through him.</p><p>Dabi had seen eyes like that before, belonging to both humans and monsters. What Shigaraki was, he could never be sure. There were people, flesh and blood human beings, that would do things even monsters would be appalled by. It wouldn't surprise him if the boss wasn't all too human anymore, lost to his own indulgences of tearing apart everything and everyone that displeased him.</p><p>"Care to walk me through this?" Sako watched him as he approached with a needle.</p><p>"This'll numb you so you don't feel pain," he said as he tapped on the syringe. "Open your mouth."</p><p>Sako made a face and Shigaraki looked at him with genuine concern.</p><p>"Why....why my mouth?"</p><p>Dabi sighed. He really shouldn't have suggested this, but it was too late to back out now. "I need a bone, and seeing as your arm bone was fucking obliterated, a tooth will have to do."</p><p>"Does it have to be <em>my</em> bone?"</p><p>"Yes," he snapped. "Open your fucking mouth."</p><p>Shigaraki stopped him, hand on his wrist, pinkie out. There was a manic look in his eyes. "What the fuck do you think you're playing at?"</p><p>"You're the one that wanted to be a part of the audience." Dabi glared at him. "So you can either watch or you can get the fuck out."</p><p>Shigaraki growled at him, an inhuman sound, low and dangerous, but he let go and Dabi went to work.</p><p>Sako winced as the tooth was pulled, but other than the strangled noise he made, he was fine. He looked uncomfortable, though. Somehow still much more relaxed than Dabi had been when Nikola had operated on him. It bothered him when she did it. Perhaps it was because she was touching the insides. Perhaps it was because he still didn't like the feeling, even over a decade later, of plastic against his bones.</p><p>"Why do you need a bone?" Shigaraki asked him as he pressed gauze into Sako's mouth, putting a few pillows behind him so that he was sitting upright, the slightly bloodied tooth clenched in his palm.</p><p>"Won't work without it," he answered curtly, going back to his business. Set aside on another table was the arm he'd gotten from Nikola - along with the rest of his supplies - already filled with sawdust and cloves. It was a soothing smell, the mix of the two, and Dabi was sure he'd smell of it as well, had his quirk not overpowered it with the smell of ashes and smoke.</p><p>He carefully undid one of the panels in the forearm, setting the tooth inside, burying it deep before making sure the panel was set tightly back into place.</p><p>He held it up as he turned back to the table, smiling wickedly. "Hey Compress? Wanna see something cool?"</p><p>He got a noise in reply.</p><p>"Why don't you try making a fist?"</p><p>Shigaraki rolled his eyes and Sako let out a snicker.</p><p>"Suit yourself," Dabi shrugged, setting the arm down next to Sako.</p><p>"It's plastic." Shigaraki frowned as he looked at it.</p><p>"Yeah, and?"</p><p>"He won't be able to move it," Shigaraki argued, his tone becoming increasingly clear that he was getting annoyed. "It'll just sit there. You're wasting everyone's time with your bullshit voodoo crap. Why the hell did you pull out his fucking tooth?!"</p><p>Sako looked back and forth between them, obviously worried, panicked now as he clearly felt the same sentiments that Shigaraki did.</p><p>"He won't be able to move it until I attach it," Dabi said calmly, ignoring the distress of both his boss and his patient. If they didn't want to believe he could make a fist, then he wouldn't press them any further.</p><p>"You're full of shit."</p><p>"Let me work." Dabi glared once again as he returned to the table with his tools, picking up another syringe and filling it with another dose of numbing agent.</p><p>"Mph whm?" Sako mumbled through the gauze, looking at the needle with a tired expression.</p><p>"Just a bit of skin." He pressed a hand to Sako's good arm, holding it steady as he pressed the tip into the vein.</p><p>He set it down, taking a knife he'd borrowed from Toga, cleansed, sterilized, and sharpened.</p><p>Shigaraki didn't stop him this time, watching with interest as Dabi pressed the tip of the knife to bare skin. The pale man licked his lips, eyes shining with something twisted, something akin to hunger.</p><p>Dabi sometimes wished he could still feel hunger pains.</p><p>Shigaraki's gaze felt heavy on him, and Dabi heard the growl forming in the back of his throat as the skin was slowly cut away.</p><p>Dabi tried his best to ignore him, listening to him growl and scratch, gently carving layers of skin.</p><p>"Well, if you're going to sit there and pitch a fit, you might as well make yourself useful. Get me the bandages."</p><p>"I am not <em>pitching a fit.</em>" He, regardless, handed him the roll of bandages, and Dabi began to peel the skin away, coming away with an almost perfect ring.</p><p>"It won't bleed," he said, turning to Sako, "but it'll be tender for a bit. Keep the bandages on for a few days until the skin grows back."</p><p>Sako nodded mutely, eying him warily.</p><p>"Hold the arm in place."</p><p>Shigaraki stuck his tongue out at him but did what he asked as Dabi fitted the freshly cut skin over the plastic arm, where it would meet flesh. The plastic and skin would meld together by itself. He would have to attach the skin to flesh by hand, completing the operation.</p><p>"Hold it there," he said again as he went back to the table, but before he could reach for his tools, his phone rang.</p><p>He set it on speaker as he saw Nikola's name flash across the screen, picking up the stapler and a rag.</p><p>"Yeah?"</p><p>
  <em>"Hello darling." </em>
</p><p><em>"What do you want?" </em>He asked, switching to English. Nikola's Japanese was horrid.</p><p>
  <em>"I just wanted to see how your little ritual went, dearest."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"In the middle of it, Nikki."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Dearest, you know I hate that name."</em>
</p><p>He hung up, mostly out of spite, holding the rag up to Sako. "Bite down on this. It's gonna hurt. I already gave you two shots - I ain't risking anymore."</p><p>Shigaraki just stared at him. "You're a hack."</p><p>"I said unconventional, didn't I?" Dabi was used to the staples. Then again, he couldn't quite feel it, now could he?</p><p>Sako, however, was not used to it. Pressing down on the trigger, he watched Sako jump, muffled screams escaping him as he stapled the skin into place, repeating the process over and over until he had a ring.</p><p>Tears pricked his patient's eyes as he finished up, and Sako began to let out sobs as he took the rag from his mouth.</p><p>"The skin will heal," he said, ignoring Sako as his body started to shake. "The staples will need to come out when it does. Other than that, you should be good to go."</p><p>Sako's hands curled into fists, and while tears still flowed, his pain turned into shock as he raised his new arm, flexing the fingers, watching in amazement as he bent his arm and then straightened it again. Slowly, he slid himself off the table, a bit of bloodied drool spilling out of his open mouth as he left the room - hurting, terrified, and awed all at once.</p><p>"How did you do that?"</p><p>Shigaraki was studying him again with that look, the one that told him that the smaller man wanted to turn him into something not too unlike the pile of flesh peeled from bone that he once was, the one that told him that the man would rip him to pieces, laugh, and then complain that he found no fun, no pleasure, in the way he screamed.</p><p>If he could be bothered to pretend to be in pain.</p><p>"Experience," he shrugged, letting out a sigh. "It's just something that I....that people like me can do."</p><p>"Your quirk is fire."</p><p>"You're not wrong." Dabi held up a hand, letting a small flame light up in his palm, then flicker out.</p><p>"Something like that...." He was growling again, his anger bubbling up inside him. "What the fuck are you?"</p><p>"More plastic than anything else," he answered, hitting a hand against his chest, the plastic clunking awkwardly.</p><p>"So you're-"</p><p>"Yeah. Exactly like that." Dabi stuffed his hands into his pockets. "It's still...me, I guess."</p><p>"What is?"</p><p>"I have my bones, all 206 of them. My brain, my eyes, hair, my tongue and teeth even though I don't need them anymore. My vocal cords, and.....I begged them to put my heart in, even though I don't need it, and....bits of my skin. There wasn't a lot left."</p><p>Shigaraki stepped forward, a hand pressed against Dabi's chest.</p><p>"Feels weird, doesn't it?"</p><p>Shigaraki immediately jerked his hand away, as if he'd placed it against a hot stove as he realized what he was doing.</p><p>"Not weird," he murmured.</p><p>"Not right, then?"</p><p>"Not right," he agreed, nodding slightly. Dabi didn't think he'd ever seen the boss so calm. "How much of you is-"</p><p>"Almost all of it. I don't have flesh anymore. It's just....it's all plastic filled with sawdust and cloves."</p><p>"What happened?"</p><p>"Nothing of your concern. It was a long time ago. I would've died if they hadn't done it."</p><p>"Could you-" His eyes sparked again, his voice strained, quiet. "Could you bring her back?"</p><p>Dabi lowered his head, shaking it. "I don't know how to do it with a full body. Just bits and pieces. But that doesn't matter-"</p><p>
  <em>"No-"</em>
</p><p>"Mange's gone, boss. I was still alive when they...when they fixed me. She can't come back."</p><p>Shigaraki seemed to collapse on himself, as if an imaginary weight had been placed on his shoulders.</p><p>Dabi cleared his throat. "It was worth asking."</p><p>"No," Shigaraki croaked. "No, it wasn't."</p><p>"She probably would've hated it," he added. "It's not much of a life like this. I...I can't feel things anymore. I don't eat. I don't sleep. She would've been....too expressive for this."</p><p>"Suppose you're right." Shigaraki looked up at him. "If you don't feel, then why are you here?"</p><p>Dabi shrugged again. "Might make me feel better if I get to tear the person responsible for making me like this to shreds. First the bastard that tried to kill me, then Nikola. I didn't ask to be like this, and while I don't mind it, I think it would be nice to rest."</p><p>"Your eyes are glassy." Shigaraki squinted at him, looking into his eyes.</p><p>"Not really alive. Never really alive."</p><p>"Do you think-" there was the growl again, low and taunting "-do you think you'd live if I tore you apart and put you back together?"</p><p>"Of course."</p><p>"Can I try?" He asked, and Dabi smiled. </p><p>"Go ahead. Not like I could feel it anyway."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I was thinking about this recently and decided to turn it into a series. Will be updated between my other fics when I have writer’s block for them (sorry for fans of Inko’s Home again).</p><p>I intend for this to have 14 stories total, one focusing on each fear entity from The Magnus Archives.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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